Tonight I went to White Fence Farm to pick up chicken for the family dinner. As I waited for a man to get into the car parked next to me, he looked up and quite angrily pronounced, "No one cooks anymore, just so you know."

He had a giant "Greece" knick-knack of some sort hanging from his rear-view mirror, so I thought maybe he was mad because his Greek wife refuses to cook for him like he thinks she should. I mean, I've seen "My Big Fat Greek Wedding," so I know that Greek women cook for their Greek men, right?

Then I though maybe he was upset at me. My generation, we don't cook. We eat out. We eat fast food. Except that we don't eat out all the time; at least my family doesn't. It would be pretty irrational if he were mada at me. But he did seem irate, although I couldn't tell with whom he was irate.

So what would make someone give this short proclamation to a stranger standing with a bag of chicken and various delectable side dishes?

I apologize for the infrequent posts here; I still update at my Blogger account.

Mostly I'm continuing my Album of the Day series, in which I write about albums I've listened to that were referred to me by others. I have months worth of albums left.

East of Eden : (Centennial Edition) by John Steinbeck

I haven't written in a while because things have been pretty hectic lately, and I have a feeling they will only become moreso.

Last Friday Erika went to the doctor with a concern (which turned out to be nothing), and she was told she would probably deliver the baby before her due date. On Monday, then, she had her regular checkup and found out she was dilated to four centimeters. The doctor and nurses commented that Erika would probably start labor that night. It's now Thursday, and...no labor yet. We're still expecting Junior to come any moment, though.

In other news, today I said goodbye to my first teaching job. I don't think I've mentioned that here, mostly because I've made it a point to not discuss what's happening at work on this blog (people who are close to me know the circumstances surrounding my leaving). I'm still waiting to hear from some other job opportunities.

So now feels like an odd, transitional period while we wait for some radical changes to introduce themselves into our lives. In the meantime, I'm hoping to do more writing here. Before I do, though, I thought some of you might like to know what's been happening lately.

Ben Kingsley, with the exception of a few career moves, can do no wrong, and in this epic biography of Mahatma Gandhi, he's perfect.

I'll just start off by saying that I've had this out from Netflix since about January, and have been watching it over the past few months. I hate doing that with movies, but it inevitably happens with such long movies as this one and Lawrence of Arabia. Whenever I do this, I tend not to get very involved with movies, as was the case with Gandhi. Still, how can one not admire it as a great moviemaking achievement?

Richard Attenborough's project is huge here, following Gandhi from the beginning, when he is not allowed to sit in first class on a train, to his death after he has changed India and the entire world with his nonviolent protests. His vision includes massive scenes of riots, speeches, and even Gandhi's funeral, but he doesn't fail to make the movie work on a more personal level, in many more subdued scenes between Gandhi and the people he encounters along the way. With just the right balance, he's actually able to make a 3+ hour movie feel like just the right length, instead of a drag.

Ben Kingsley, as I said before, is perfect. He's a favorite of mine, able to be quite the chameleon with his roles. He seriously becomes Gandhi here (imdb says that he was so convincing some locals thought he was Gandhi's ghost, but I don't know how well-documented that is). I was looking at photos of the real-life Gandhi online today, and the resemblance is incredible. Kingsley is convincing 100% of the time.

I could go into more details, but either you've already seen it and I'm way behind the times, or you're not all that interested, so I'll just leave it at this: It's easy to see why this movie won eight Oscars.